James 3:11

James, a leader of the church in Jerusalem and the brother of the Lord, writes to “the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad” (James 1:1), Jewish believers dispersed through the Roman world. He has just shown at length that true faith proves itself in works (James 2). Now he turns to one area of conduct where faith is tested every day, which is speech, and he begins with those whose work is speaking.

“My brethren, be not many masters” uses “masters” in its older English sense of teachers. The Greek word is didáskalos, a teacher or instructor, a word used of false teachers as well as true ones, and the verb behind “be” is gínomai, to become. James is speaking to believers who were eager to take up teaching, and he wants only a few of them to do it.

The reason follows at once: “knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.” The verb eídō properly means to see, and so to know, and James speaks of the stricter judgment as something his readers already know. The word for condemnation, kríma, means a decision, a verdict or a sentence, and meízōn makes it the greater one. It is the stricter verdict God will give on those who teach: on what they taught, why they taught it, and what their teaching did to those who heard it. The “we” includes James himself, who stands as a teacher under the same judgment, and that is humility as well as warning.

Teaching was a high calling in the early church. Paul names teachers among Christ’s gifts to the church, with apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastors (Ephesians 4:11), and tells the one who teaches to wait on his teaching (Romans 12:7). The Jewish people, from whom most of James’s readers came, also honoured teachers of the Law and knew how heavy their task was. Where a role carries honour, some will seek it for prestige or a sense of spiritual authority, without grasping what they will answer for, and James writes to check that ambition. The qualifications Paul sets for overseers and elders (1 Timothy 3:2–7, Titus 1:7–9) show how much is asked of those who lead and teach. Jesus said, “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required” (Luke 12:48), and he warned in the gravest terms against causing one of his little ones to stumble (Matthew 18:6). A teacher’s words reach many people and shape what they believe, so his account before God weighs more.

The warning also opens the whole passage. A teacher works with words, so James moves straight from teachers to the tongue, and everything he goes on to say about the tongue applies with special force to those who speak for God.

“For in many things we offend all.” The verb ptaíō means to trip or stumble, and so to err, fail or sin, and James uses the same verb again in “If any man offend not in word.” “Many things” is polýs, and “all” is hápas, all or every one, so the stumbling takes many forms and touches everyone, believers included, with James first among them. Paul says the same of the whole race: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

Of all the places we stumble, James points to speech. “In word” translates lógos, something said, and it covers every kind of speaking: passing remarks, promises, teaching, and words spoken in anger or in joy. The Greeks and Romans prized persuasive speech, and their moralists warned against gossip and slander, while Israel’s wisdom books return again and again to the tongue. Proverbs says, “In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise” (Proverbs 10:19).

The one who keeps from stumbling in word “is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.” The verb chalinagōgéō means literally to be a bit-leader, to curb something as a rider curbs a horse, and it prepares for the horse in the next verse, where the bit itself is named. “The whole body” is hólos, whole or entire, and sōma, the body, and here it stands for the entire person, with every thought, desire and action. The tongue is the hardest member to rule, so the person who rules it has the discipline to govern the rest of his life. That self-control is the Spirit’s work in us, part of the fruit Paul lists, which the KJV calls “temperance” (Galatians 5:22–23).

Verses 3 and 4 both open with “Behold”, idoú, lo or see, a call to look at something every reader already knew.

“Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things.” The word hoútō, in this way, ties the tongue to the bit and the helm. The tongue is glōssa, the organ of speech and by implication language, and it is mikrós, small, a mélos, a limb or part of the body. “Boasteth great things” is one Greek verb, megalauchéō, to talk big. It covers arrogant, inflated and presumptuous speech, and in this chapter it includes the confident talk of someone sure he is fit to teach, the very person verse 1 warns. Speech like this comes from a heart that exalts itself.

“Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!” The second “little” translates olígos, while the first translates mikrós, and both stress how small the beginning is. “How great” is hēlíkos, and “matter” is hýlē, a forest, and so fuel, which is why the line can be read “how great a forest a little fire kindleth.” The verb is anáptō, to kindle. In dry country an uncontrolled fire could destroy homes, crops and whole communities, and a careless or malicious word spreads the same way, through reputations, families and churches, quickly and often past repair. Proverbs says, “An ungodly man diggeth up evil: and in his lips there is as a burning fire” (Proverbs 16:27).

“Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.” “Therewith” means with it, with the tongue James has just described. To bless is eulogéō, to praise and speak well of. Blessing God, giving thanks to him and praising him, was at the heart of Jewish worship and is at the heart of ours, and James names him “God, even the Father”.

To curse is kataráomai, to call down evil on someone, to doom. The cursing James means runs from harsh criticism, slander and malicious gossip to the open wish that harm would fall on someone. “Men” is ánthrōpos, the word behind “no man” in verse 8, and it means human beings of every kind.

“Which are made after the similitude of God” gives the reason this is so grave. The word homoíōsis means likeness or resemblance, and it takes us back to creation, when God made man in his image and after his likeness (Genesis 1:26–27). Every person bears that likeness, whatever his standing or character, and it gives each one a worth that comes from God. After the flood God forbade murder on the same ground: “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man” (Genesis 9:6). To curse a person is to dishonour the God whose likeness he bears.

Worship of God and the way we treat people belong together. Jesus joined the two great commandments, love for God with all the heart and love for the neighbour as oneself (Matthew 22:37–39), and John writes, “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” (1 John 4:20–21). Praise from a heart that holds people in contempt is hollow, and the way we speak of others tests the truth of our worship.

“Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?” The question opens with mḗti, whether at all, and it is framed to expect the answer no. A fountain, pēgḗ, is a spring or source. “Send forth” is brýō, to swell out or gush. “Place” is opḗ, an opening or hole, and so the mouth of the spring, the very place the water comes out. Sweet water is glykýs, fresh and good to drink, and bitter is pikrós, sharp and acrid. In a dry land like Palestine springs meant life, and everyone knew that a spring gives the same water every day it flows.

“Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs?” Here mḗ with dýnamai, to be able, again frames a question that expects no. The fig tree is sykē, the olive elaía, the vine ámpelos and the fig sŷkon. Figs, olives and grapes were the everyday crops of the land, and each tree bears its own fruit.

“So can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.” The word hoútō, in this way, applies the lesson of the trees to the spring, and “no fountain” is oudeís with pēgḗ. “Salt” is halykós, briny, the water is hýdōr, and “fresh” is glykýs, the same word as “sweet” in verse 11. “Bear” and “yield” in this verse translate the same verb, poiéō, to make or produce.

What a source gives shows what it is, and the source of our words is the heart. Proverbs says, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23). Jesus taught the same with trees: “Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” (Matthew 7:16–20), and “For every tree is known by his own fruit … for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh” (Luke 6:43–45). Left to itself the heart is “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9), and a mixed stream of words shows that the spring itself needs to be made new.

Every line of this passage finds its answer in Jesus. He is the “perfect man” of verse 2, whose words were always pure and true: “Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22). He is the Word who was God (John 1:1) and was made flesh (John 1:14). His hearers “wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth” (Luke 4:22), and from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5) onward “he taught them as one having authority” (Matthew 7:28–29). He is the true Master (John 13:13) and the truth itself (John 14:6), so the teachers James warns have a perfect pattern in him. His word healed the sick (Matthew 8:16), commanded unclean spirits (Mark 1:27), stilled the storm (Mark 4:39) and called Lazarus out of the grave (John 11:43–44). Peter said to him, “thou hast the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).

The governor of his tongue was always the Father’s will. He said, “I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me” (John 5:30), he spoke as the Father gave him commandment (John 12:49–50), and “the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself” (John 14:10). Whoever has seen him has seen the Father (John 14:9). He humbled himself and became obedient unto death (Philippians 2:5–8), and he calls all who labour and are heavy laden to come to him (Matthew 11:28).

The curse that our tongues deserve fell on him. “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13), and he laid down his life for people who cursed him. Through him the bitter spring of the heart is made new. He promised that from the one who believes, “out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37–38), speaking of the Spirit. The fire that comes from him is the one John the Baptist foretold: “he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire” (Matthew 3:11). He is the true vine, and those who abide in him bring forth much fruit (John 15:5), the good fruit of a good tree. In him we are new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17), being conformed to his image (Romans 8:29), and our members, the tongue among them, become instruments of righteousness (Romans 6:12–14) as his word dwells in us richly (Colossians 3:16).

This passage shows how seriously God takes the words we speak. He holds those who teach in his name to a stricter account because his truth is precious to him, and he weighs every word any of us says. He made every person after his likeness, so the people we speak to and speak about carry a worth he gave them, and the honour we give God and the honour we give them belong together.

The passage is honest about us. Every one of us stumbles, and the tongue is beyond our power to tame. That honesty is a mercy, because it turns us to God for a strength we lack. James writes “my brethren” even as he rebukes, so these warnings come from within the family of God to its own members. The spring, the fig tree and the vine show what God means our speech to be: sweet water from a renewed heart, the fruit of a tree he has planted. In Christ we have a Teacher whose words were always true, a Saviour who bore the curse, and a Spirit who makes the spring new, and the mouth that once both blessed and cursed can be given over to blessing God and building up those made in his likeness.